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CAR REPORT: In Pole Position - There is BMW and then there is Nissan and Citroen. But can the latter pair achieve the status of the former?

Last April was a bad month for Ford. It was the month in which
David (Renault), with just over 8 per cent UK market share, beat Goliath
(Ford) with 18 per cent to take the top slot in the new car sales
charts. The French car maker sold 9,300 Meganes while Ford sold 8,000
Escorts. It was the clearest sign yet that yesterday’s minor-league car
makers in the UK are fast becoming today’s key players.

Last April was a bad month for Ford. It was the month in which

David (Renault), with just over 8 per cent UK market share, beat Goliath

(Ford) with 18 per cent to take the top slot in the new car sales

charts. The French car maker sold 9,300 Meganes while Ford sold 8,000

Escorts. It was the clearest sign yet that yesterday’s minor-league car

makers in the UK are fast becoming today’s key players.

Doubtless this new order will herald an even greater choice of

competitive models seeking the attention of an increasingly

sophisticated and value-conscious public. There has arguably never been

a more important moment to get the brand right, that intangible which

helps make a car desirable, when both new and secondhand, and that

insulates it against the worst ravages of depreciation.

Renault knows this. Only recently, its marketing and advertising people

met to ask each other precisely what is Renault’s brand. ’We’re aware of

a situation in the future where we are all so model-focused that we lose

sight of what Renault is,’ said a spokesman. ’It’s all too easy to be

model-led in your advertising, especially when you are gunning for

market share and when you have the big three (Ford, Vauxhall and Rover)

on the run. The problem is, it’s very short-term. It works when the

product is fresh but does more harm than good as the model ages and

buyers move on. You must have a clear brand identity to support you

through that period.’

Brand image is, after all, the thing that appeals to the car buyer’s

emotions, that persuades him to spend more money than he planned to,

which earns his loyalty and which rewards him with a good residual value

(the price someone else is prepared to pay for his car when he has

finished with it). Mercedes has a good image. So have BMW and Jaguar

and, increasingly, so has Volvo. Admittedly, all are prestige marques

but that’s not the reason they have a good image in the eyes of car

buyers. They have a good image because each marque knows exactly what it

is, and has done so for years.

Contrast their images with those of, for example, Nissan and

Citroen.

Car buyers do all the time but find that, apart from styling, there’s

very little to choose between volume makes like these - certainly

nothing you can sink your emotions into. Their image seems to change

with every model and every seasonal offer. A few months ago, the Nissan

Almera was the choice of two fictional TV policemen, the Sweeney’s Regan

and Carter, heroes in their day but this time around sent-up big time

Meanwhile, the Citroen Xsara plays for cheap headlines and chat-show

feminist outrage by featuring Claudia Schiffer stripping. The problem

is, though one car may be more reliable or look better than the other,

when push comes to shove, neither grabs car buyers’ emotions. As a

result, in the absence of a strong brand image, the decision to choose

one over the other comes down to price. And in three years’ time these

models will sell for only about 35 per cent of their new price, because

used-car buyers are similarly unmoved by old Nissans or Citroens. The

new car buyer has lost a fortune and will never buy ’that’ make again.

Brand loyalty just isn’t at issue.

And that’s the future of an increasing number of cars built and marketed

by manufacturers devoid of a clear brand identity, despite being

obsessed with shifting metal and winning market share.

’Anyone can build a car, not everybody can build a brand,’ David Barker,

managing partner of the communications agency, Mountain View, says.

’Volume car makers don’t know who they are so they just end up

modelling. They get greedy and soon they are entering market sectors

they have no business being in. It’s why Renault can sell the Megane but

can’t sell the Safrane.

Others try niche marketing to hide the fact they don’t know who they

are, but they just end up diluting what brand they have.

’Consistency is the key,’ says Barker. ’First Ford had the Cortina, then

the Sierra and now the Mondeo. With each radical change in model it has

lost its market and had to regain it. The same mistakes keep being made

in car makers’ branding strategy. They are one thing one minute and

something else the next.’

But Steve Saxty of the motor industry consultants, Automotive Answers,

reckons the problem goes deeper than mere model changes and the battle

for sales chart supremacy. ’The forthcoming changes in the Block

Exemption rules governing dealers’ and manufacturers’ trading

relationships could spell the end of the traditional franchised dealer

system,’ says Saxty.

’Some manufacturers will find themselves having to appeal to car buyers

directly without a big dealer network doing the hard work of pulling

them into the showrooms. They’ll need to develop strong brands that

customers will gravitate to. Consistency will be key.

’Despite its separation from VW, Audi has presented a very consistent

image, evolving rather than changing over-night. Volvo is another whose

brand has evolved,’ Saxty adds. ’It can’t still claim safety as its USP

but instead of dumping it, has glamorised it. BMW is ’the ultimate

driving machine’ and the ultimate brand. It has stayed on-message for

more than 20 years. People buy a BMW rather than, for example, a

3-series saloon.

It is car makers such as Rover (which has dropped its middle-class

’relax’ message and discovered Cool Britannia) that could face problems.